1. #7951
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    Trump seems to have even given up the APPEARANCE of giving a fuck, if he ever did.

  2. #7952
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    Trump seems to have even given up the APPEARANCE of giving a fuck, if he ever did.
    The only thing he gives a fuck about is himself. Now he wants credit for the vaccines.

    Donald J. Trump

    @RealDonaldTrump

    Another Vaccine just announced. This time by Moderna, 95% effective. For those great “historians”, please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!


    5:19 PM · Nov 16, 2020·Twitter for iPhone



    Fortunately I think he'll get credit for the half a million Americans he killed.

  3. #7953
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Trump:For those great “historians”, please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!
    Jaysus, there really is something wrong with him, he's like a small child who needs people to tell him he's a good boy

  4. #7954
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    Quote Originally Posted by HuangLao View Post
    Exactly! By the way, the audio makes a great ring tone for 2020!

  5. #7955
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    South Korea to tighten social distancing, warns of new COVID-19 crisis

    South Korea will impose stricter social distancing rules for the greater Seoul area a month after easing them, officials said on Tuesday, warning of an even bigger crisis if anti-COVID-19 efforts fail to dampen a spike in new cases.


    Starting Tuesday midnight, tighter curbs will ban public gatherings of 100 people or more, limit religious services and audiences at sporting events to 30% capacity, and require high-risk facilities including clubs and karaoke bars to broaden distance among guests.


    South Korea has been one of the world’s coronavirus mitigation success stories after tackling the first major COVID-19 epidemic outside China with aggressive tracing and testing, but continues to battle persistent rises in infections.


    The tougher restrictions came as the daily case tally hovered above 200 for a fourth consecutive day, with a series of cluster outbreaks emerging from offices, medical facilities and small gatherings in Seoul and surrounding regions where around half of the country’s 52 million population live.


    “Our anti-coronavirus efforts are facing a crisis, and the situation is particularly serious in the Seoul metropolitan area,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a meeting.


    “The heightened curbs would cause greater inconvenience in our daily lives … but we all know from our experiences that there would be an even bigger crisis if we don’t act now.”


    The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 230 cases as of Monday midnight, marking the ninth straight day of triple-digit rises and the highest since early September.


    Of them, 202 were locally transmitted and 28 imported, and nearly 68% of the domestic infections came from the greater Seoul area, KDCA data showed.


    The numbers took the country’s total infections to 28,998, with 494 deaths.


    KDCA director Jeong Eun-kyeong warned on Monday the daily tally could go as high as 400 within coming weeks, asking citizens to stick to strict hygiene rules and minimise year-end celebrations.


    The foreign ministry extended its special travel advisory initiated in March by another month, urging all nonessential overseas trips to be cancelled with the pandemic raging around the globe.


    South Korea to tighten social distancing, warns of new COVID-19 crisis | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

  6. #7956
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    More than 247,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the US

    There have been at least 11,214,231 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 247,356 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.


    The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.


    So far today, Johns Hopkins has reported 11,251 new cases and 154 reported deaths.

    Coronavirus update: Latest news from around the world

  7. #7957
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    More than 247,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the US

    There have been at least 11,214,231 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 247,356 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.


    The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.


    So far today, Johns Hopkins has reported 11,251 new cases and 154 reported deaths.

    Coronavirus update: Latest news from around the world
    fake news!! They did not die from covid 19, they died from not breathing.

  8. #7958
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    Employers are cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs as Covid-19 continues to hit the economy.


    While many parts of the country went into lockdown to combat the spread of the virus, unemployment numbers have been rising sharply. How high could the unemployment rate go?


    How many people are unemployed?

    The most widely used measure is the unemployment rate. It counts how many people are able to work and want a job, but can't find one.


    The most recent unemployment rate - for July to September - was 4.8%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).


    That is an increase of 0.7% over the previous three months, and meant that 1.62 million people were unemployed.


    However, this number is always based on surveys taken in previous months and is not right up to date. Some of the data was gathered in July and August, when infection rates were falling, and large parts of the economy were reopening.


    So this figure is likely to carry on rising in coming months.


    How high could unemployment go?

    Most economists expect unemployment to continue rising for the rest of the year.


    In its most recent set of forecasts the Bank of England said that unemployment would most likely peak at about 7.7% in April to June of next year.


    There was a high degree of uncertainty around that forecast, with a small chance that it could rise as high as 10%.


    However, those forecasts don't take into account the government's decision to extend the furlough scheme to the end of March.


    Why is unemployment beginning to rise?

    The government has been trying to protect jobs through a number of measures. The largest is the furlough scheme, where it pays most of the wages for workers when their employers cannot. That has prevented many of those people becoming unemployed.


    However, the furlough scheme was being wound down in September and October, ahead of its planned closure on 31 October.


    Many companies cut jobs in preparation for the end of the scheme, and July to September saw a record rise in the number of redundancies of 181,000.









    The government has now announced an extension to the scheme for another five months, which it hopes will protect more jobs.







    The easing of lockdown restrictions across the summer also boosted the numbers of people counted as unemployed.


    People who weren't looking for a job during the first lockdown were considered "economically inactive", and weren't included in the figures. But as the rules changed, they began to look for work and were therefore classed as unemployed.


    The figures for July to September saw a record number of people move from inactive to unemployed - 215,000.


    Who is becoming unemployed?

    One of the hardest-hit groups has been young people. The figures show that 174,000 fewer 16- to 24-year-olds were employed in July to September, compared to the previous three months.


    The ONS says that this is because young people are more likely to be working in areas such as hotels, restaurants and tourism. Jobs like these have been particularly hard-hit by lockdown, and quarantine restrictions have reduced the number of tourists.




    Are there signs of the job market getting better?

    The latest official statistics capture the state of the country before a lockdown across all of England was announced, and the extension of the furlough scheme.


    They do show a picture of many things improving, although that may not last.







    The total number of hours people worked in July to September increased as parts of the economy reopened and people returned to work.


    The average amount people earn had been falling sharply during the crisis, but it rose 1.9% in the latest figures (excluding bonuses).


    The number of job vacancies available also continued to increase, but there are still 35% less than a year ago.


    IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
    image captionShopping areas which would normally be busy are quiet because of new lockdowns

  9. #7959
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    Unbelievable....
    A Spanish businessman who acted as a go-between to secure protective garments for NHS staff in the coronavirus pandemic was paid $28m (£21m) in UK taxpayer cash.

    The consultant had been in line for a further $20m of UK public funds, documents filed in a US court reveal.

    The legal papers also reveal the American supplier of the PPE called the deals "lucrative".

    The Department of Health said proper checks are done for all contracts.

    A legal dispute playing out in the courts in Miami has helped shine a light on the amount of money some companies have made supplying the NHS with equipment to protect staff from Covid infection.

    Safety chiefs pressed to make incorrect PPE report
    Safety concerns halt use of 50 million NHS masks
    Earlier this year, as the coronavirus pandemic was spreading rapidly around the world, Florida-based jewellery designer Michael Saiger set up a business to supply PPE to governments.

    He used his experience of working with factories in China to land what are described as "a number of lucrative contracts" supplying protective gloves and gowns to the NHS.

    Mr Saiger signed up a Spanish businessman, Gabriel Gonzalez Andersson, to help with "procurement, logistics, due diligence, product sourcing and quality control" of the PPE equipment. In effect, Mr Andersson was expected to find a manufacturer for deals that had already been done.

    Further $20m pledged
    Mr Andersson was paid more than $28m (£21m) for his work on two government contracts to supply the NHS. He was described in court documents as having done "very well under this arrangement".

    Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESNHS medic in PPE gown and gloves
    Image captionEarlier in the year there was a shortage of protective equipment for NHS medics
    In June, Mr Saiger signed three more agreements to supply the NHS with millions of gloves and surgical gowns.

    When the UK government paid up, his go-between, Mr Andersson, would have been in line for a further $20m in consulting fees.

    But the court documents allege that once the agreements had been signed, Mr Andersson stopped doing any work for Mr Saiger. It's not clear whether Mr Andersson received any of the money for this second batch of deals.

    This led to PPE deliveries being delayed to NHS frontline workers, Mr Saiger claims, and the company "scrambling" to fulfil the contracts by other means.

    So far the UK's Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has published contracts with Mr Saiger's company, Saiger LLC, totalling more than £200m. These were awarded without being opened to competition.

    'Huge profits'
    Alongside the legal dispute in Florida, the deals are set to be challenged in UK courts, by campaign group the Good Law Project. It accuses government ministers of not paying "sufficient regard" to tax-payers' money over a contract with the firm.

    "We do not understand why, as late as June, government was still making direct awards of contracts sufficiently lucrative as to enable these sorts of profits to be made," Jolyon Maugham, the project's director told the BBC.

    "The real criticism that is to be made here is of the huge profits that government allows to be generated."

    This is not the first time concerns have been raised about PPE contracts the DHSC signed during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Earlier this year, the BBC revealed that 50 million face masks the government bought could not be used in the NHS because of safety concerns. And last week, it exposed concerns that the government had leaned on safety officials to certify PPE which had been wrongly classified.

    A DHSC spokesperson said the department had been "working tirelessly" to deliver PPE, with more than 4.9 billion items delivered to frontline health workers so far and nearly 32 billion items ordered "to provide a continuous supply".

    They added: "Proper due diligence is carried out for all government contracts, and we take these checks extremely seriously."

    The BBC asked Gabriel Gonzalez Andersson for comment but he has not so far responded.

    Saiger LLC said: "At the height of the pandemic, and at a time when the NHS was in need of high-quality PPE that met the required safety standards, we delivered for Britain, on time and at value.

    "At no time have we ever used any 'middlemen'. We have few full-time staff so for large projects we bring in short-term contractors for additional expertise and capacity, allowing us to deliver what is needed.

    "We are exceptionally proud to have played our part in providing frontline workers in the UK, including nurses, doctors and hospital staff, with the millions of pieces of PPE they need to stay safe and to save lives."

  10. #7960
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chittychangchang View Post
    Florida-based jewellery designer Michael Saiger set up a business to supply PPE to governments.

    He used his experience of working with factories in China to land what are described as "a number of lucrative contracts" supplying protective gloves and gowns to the NHS.
    Oi Gewalt . . . dass iz da Saiger-Kindl . . . eyn Meschuggener aber a klug eyner.

    And why not - the government set the rules, which just goes to show that public servants are not great in the free market

  11. #7961
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    "Proper due diligence is carried out for all government contracts
    oh , fcuk off

  12. #7962
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    "GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, 87, tests positive for coronavirus "

    Chuck Grassley, oldest GOP senator, tests positive for Covid-19
    The COVID-2019 Thread-grassley-jpg

  13. #7963
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    "everyone's well wishes"?

    The fossil should have been put out to pasture a long time ago - the poster-octogenarian for term limits.


    Is he doing a Trump as well and pretending to have c-19 so he can 'beat' it asap and show everyone how harmless it is and/or how strong he is?

  14. #7964
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Oh dear. Sinovac won't be claiming "96.5%" then.

    SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) - Sinovac Biotech’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac triggered a quick immune response but the level of antibodies produced was lower than in people who had recovered from the disease, preliminary trial results showed on Wednesday.

    <snip>

    “Our findings show that CoronaVac is capable of inducing a quick antibody response within four weeks of immunisation by giving two doses of the vaccine at a 14-day interval,” Zhu Fengcai, one of the authors of the paper, said.

    “We believe that this makes the vaccine suitable for emergency use during the pandemic,” Zhu said in a statement published alongside the paper.
    Yeah, it's not an emergency, thanks.


    Sinovac'&#39;'s COVID-19 vaccine induces quick immune response: study | Reuters

  15. #7965
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Well shit.

    Although apparently he's no longer taking phone calls and he isn't quite the expert this particular website claims he is.


    Top pathologist Dr. Roger Hodkinson told government officials in Alberta during a zoom conference call that the current coronavirus crisis is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public.”

    Hodkinson’s comments were made during a discussion involving the Community and Public Services Committee and the clip was subsequently uploaded to YouTube.

    Noting that he was also an expert in virology, Hodkinson pointed out that his role as CEO of a biotech company that manufactures COVID tests means, “I might know a little bit about all this.”


    “There is utterly unfounded public hysteria driven by the media and politicians, it’s outrageous, this is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public,” said Hodkinson.


    The doctor said that nothing could be done to stop the spread of the virus besides protecting older more vulnerable people and that the whole situation represented “politics playing medicine, and that’s a very dangerous game.”


    Hodkinson remarked that “social distancing is useless because COVID is spread by aerosols which travel 30 meters or so before landing,” as he called for society to be re-opened immediately to prevent the debilitating damage being caused by lockdowns.


    Hodkinson also slammed mandatory mask mandates as completely pointless.


    “Masks are utterly useless. There is no evidence base for their effectiveness whatsoever,” he said.


    “Paper masks and fabric masks are simply virtue signalling. They’re not even worn effectively most of the time. It’s utterly ridiculous. Seeing these unfortunate, uneducated people – I’m not saying that in a pejorative sense – seeing these people walking around like lemmings obeying without any knowledge base to put the mask on their face.”


    The doctor also slammed the unreliability of PCR tests, noting that “positive test results do not, underlined in neon, mean a clinical infection,” and that all testing should stop because the false numbers are “driving public hysteria.”


    Hodkinson said that the risk of death in the province of Alberta for people under the age of 65 was “one in three hundred thousand,” and that it was simply “outrageous” to shut down society for what the doctor said “was just another bad flu.”


    “I’m absolutely outraged that this has reached this level, it should all stop tomorrow,” concluded Dr. Hodkinson.


    Hodkinson’s credentials are beyond question, with the MedMalDoctors website affirming his credibility.


    “He received his general medical degrees from Cambridge University in the UK (M.A., M.B., B. Chir.) where he was a scholar at Corpus Christi College. Following a residency at the University of British Columbia he became a Royal College certified general pathologist (FRCPC) and also a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists (FCAP).”


    “He is in good Standing with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, and has been recognized by the Court of Queen’s Bench in Alberta as an expert in pathology.”
    Top Pathologist Claims Coronavirus is “The Greatest Hoax Ever Perpetrated on an Unsuspecting Public” – Summit News

  16. #7966
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    An interesting opinion piece.

    Why the United States Can’t Defeat the Coronavirus

    As Thanksgiving approaches, some conservatives in the United States are boasting online of the mass gatherings they plan to hold in
    defiance of social distancing measures. This strange civil disobedience, even as the country’s coronavirus cases and deaths soar, has become a bizarre mark of status for them, as they plan public events that are likely to led to people’s deaths. The denial of facts and science extends to the deathbed, as the South Dakota nurse Jodi Doering told CNN: “People are still looking for something else, and they want a magic answer, and they don’t want to believe that COVID is real. … Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.’”


    The outright denialists are only the crudest representative of an idea that has dominated American (and to some degree, European) responses since the start of the pandemic: This can’t really be happening. As the second wave of the pandemic crashes down, the U.S. government has essentially surrendered: The Republican Party is adamantly anti-lockdown, and the country’s coronavirus task force is advised by a crank the president saw on TV. Usually, this kind of denial of reality is associated with authoritarian states and leaders who don’t need to answer to anyone. But American denialism hasn’t been driven by dictatorship or control of the media—although Donald Trump and Fox News have played a critical part in worsening things. Instead, the primary driver behind America’s current predicament has been the fundamental distrust of government itself—and the deep conviction that disaster is something that happens to other people.

    The playbook for control of the coronavirus is, as countries across the Asia-Pacific have shown, simple—and painful. It begins with sharp lockdowns, pioneered by China’s near-total closure of the country for 76 days but also carried out skillfully in New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam, and elsewhere. In countries where the virus hasn’t taken a strong foothold, such as Japan and Australia, enforced social distancing, rather than a full lockdown, can work. During that lockdown, economic support has to flow from the government to a frozen private sector, whether through wage subsidies, direct payments, or, as in China, targeted business aid combined with restrictions on layoffs.

    The United States never really had a lockdown. Even the stay-at-home orders issued in 43 states in March and April came nowhere close to the level of lockdown imposed in other countries—not least because of the lack of real penalties for violating the rules. In a rare success, though, the combination of direct payments and unemployment insurance kept the U.S. economy afloat.

    But it’s the necessary follow-up stages where the United States has truly failed.

    It’s not just the lack of a centralized test-and-trace program, a necessity for spotting and stamping out future possible outbreaks. Key among these has been a centralized and mandatory system for quarantine and isolation, not just for patients themselves but for those exposed to them. It was this step that
    crushed the spread of the virus in China and has helped contain it elsewhere. In countries taking the virus seriously, such as Taiwan, Australia, and Israel, entering from abroad means two weeks of monitored observance in a hotel; in the United States, you can simply waltz in and say you intend to quarantine, with no checks or balances.

    New York City now offers quarantine facilities for coronavirus sufferers in hotel rooms—on a purely volunteer basis. Centralized isolation is nowhere to be seen, and instead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues suggestions about confining the infected to a single room—an impossibility in many multigeneration households or in small city apartments. Internal travel rules are flimsy; take Washington, D.C., which has been relatively successful in coronavirus control. Its attempt to impose rules to prevent reinfection by visitors features no enforcement and a myriad of bizarre loopholes: If you’re visiting for less than 24 hours, for instance, that’s fine. Perhaps the virus likes to take a good look around first before it infects people. At every stage, loopholes dominate, a belief that somehow the virus can be cheated of its toll: We’ll keep restaurants open until 10 p.m. but no later! We’ll ban gatherings of more than 15 people! Arbitrary lines are adjusted to avoid necessary realities.

    At the heart of these systemic flaws lie two fatal American convictions: The government can’t help, and disasters are things that happen to other people. That first idea is embedded so deep into American life that it becomes self-sustaining. Government departments are underfunded, often deliberately, so the everyday experience of Americans with government services becomes bureaucratic, oppressive, and unpleasant. Meanwhile, the parts of U.S. governance most frequently enforced are those that hit the most vulnerable—such as brutal policing.

    From
    crumbling infrastructure to a tax system and a carceral state that target the poor, Americans have ample reason to not trust the government to do its job.


    But another factor contributing to national denialism may be the sheer prosperity and safety of modern American life. Americans are simply not used to the idea that what’s happening on the news might change their daily life. In countries where a political or natural disaster radically altered life within living memory, such as China or Vietnam, people were psychologically prepared for the impact of the coronavirus—for the idea that today’s headlines might mean your life will be different tomorrow.


    But in the United States, the news has very rarely had that kind of immediate impact. Mostly it’s been something happening to other people, far away. Even if events hit relatively close to home, they don’t matter. When Puerto Rico—a U.S. territory—was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, the American public barely noticed. It’s why the response of the liberal press in the early months of the pandemic was to try to turn the coronavirus into another participant in the culture war; the real danger, papers earnestly proclaimed, was not the virus but racism.

    Even when mass death came to the United States, its impact was brutally disproportionate. At first, these outbreaks were small and localized, like that among
    Orthodox Jews in New York, but then, as the virus spread, the first wave hit Black Americans three times harder than others.


    To be sure, the United States has natural disasters. But the regular exceptions are limited and regionally specific: floods in New Orleans, tornados in the Midwest. They’re also much more visible than the pandemic; nobody can disagree with the existence of a hurricane. Throw into the difficulty of accepting an invisible foe the paranoid history of
    American conspiratorialism, and you end up with a nation dotted with denialists. Being denied a high school party or a Thanksgiving get-together has become defined for tens of millions of Americans as an act of government oppression, not a necessary sacrifice. (In contrast, Chinese sacrificed the single-most important family event of the year, the Spring Festival, entirely.)


    This was not inevitable, nor is it entirely unique. Australia and New Zealand are
    proverbially lucky countries, with long histories of prosperity. But their proximity to Asia, experience with SARS, and strong notions of communal support meant their response was fast and effective. Europe lacks the degree of American mistrust in government, but its own seven decades of postwar complacency made its coronavirus response dangerously late and drained the will to sustain measures through the winter.

    But America’s current path is now locked in, since the Republican Party has committed itself wholeheartedly to sustaining the same bad ideas that caused the disaster to begin with. Even the incoming administration of Joe Biden will find itself effectively hamstrung on any action, literally unable to take the lifesaving measures—from a true lockdown to economic support—that the country desperately needs. American exceptionalism has finally caught up with the United States.

    https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/18...navirus-covid/

  17. #7967
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    It's seems that fighting over the bog roll is a great way of getting the 'rona.

    COVID-19: Supermarkets most common places visited before positive test - latest data
    COVID-19: Supermarkets most common places visited before positive test - latest data

  18. #7968
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    Day 10 in the apartment= bored.
    We've started online classes after a weekend of near constant online meetings to put the whole school online once again. Not the same as being in class, but it is a welcome slice of normality in the day. While I think that everyone is ready for winter break, I think boredom could be quite the issue for all this break.

  19. #7969
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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  20. #7970
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    It's an "emergency" you see.

  21. #7971
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    The US has passed 2,000 deaths in one day for the first time.

    And globally, 60 million cases is nearing.

  22. #7972
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    ^ *sigh*

    Went to the doctor yesterday, where the nurse had me in tears telling me about her mother who caught COVID while in the hospital for tests and died six weeks later. The family wasn’t even allowed in to see her but by video only.


    COVID-19: From Philippines to Bangladesh, Nations Hunt for Vaccines

    Countries in South and Southeast Asia are grappling with rising COVID-19 infection rates as they rush to arrange vaccines for their citizens.


    East Asia’s coronavirus hotspot, Indonesia, crossed a health threshold last week when it recorded more than 5,000 new cases in a single day. The archipelago nation with the world’s 15th highest death toll – 15,503 as of Wednesday – has shopped for vaccines around the world.


    President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said Wednesday that vaccination could start as early as December, with priority given to healthcare workers and security forces.


    “We hope the vaccine will arrive at the end of this November. But if not, December will do, both finished vaccines and in the bulk form to be manufactured by Bio Farma,” he said, referring to the Indonesian-state-owned pharmaceutical firm.


    The Indonesian government says it has secured up to 430 million doses of vaccine for delivery this year and next from Chinese companies Sinovac, Sinopharm and CanSino. Indonesia also signed agreements to purchase vaccines from the South Korean company Genexine Inc. and British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.


    In Washington, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence offered vaccine cooperation during talks Tuesday with visiting Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan, Luhut’s ministry said in a statement Wednesday.


    The statement did not provide details on the cooperation proposed by Pence, but said Luhut welcomed the offer and hoped that the next administration would continue close cooperation.


    Two American pharmaceutical companies that are developing COVID-19 vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer, have announced in recent days that their vaccines are 95 percent effective, based on preliminary data.


    Luhut also visited President Donald Trump at the White House to thank him for extending trade preferences to Indonesia, the statement said. The White House did not announce the visit or respond to a BenarNews request for comment.
    Indonesia, meanwhile, faced potential new infections after huge crowds gathered in Jakarta and West Java to greet a popular cleric who returned home last week from a three-year stay in Saudi Arabia. Two police chiefs were sacked for failing to prevent the events.


    On Wednesday, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia rose by 4,265, bringing the total to 478,720, according to official numbers. The death toll rose by 110.


    Winter woes


    Indonesia is one of the countries conducting Phase 3 clinical trials of the vaccine being developed by Sinovac, as is Bangladesh. But the Chinese firm has recently said it would pull out of Bangladesh, where the trials have not yet begun, according to Health Minister Zahid Maleque.


    “Possibly, they want to leave since we are unable to pay them the money they asked for the trial,” Maleque told BenarNews last week.


    In October, Bangladesh’s government notified Sinovac that it would not agree to co-fund a phase-three trial because that was not part of a deal agreed to in July, Maleque said.


    None of the countries that have allowed vaccine trials are paying companies for them, he added.


    Bangladesh has since signed a deal with the Serum Institute of India to buy 30 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the multinational drug maker AstraZeneca. The South Asian nation has recorded at least 438,795 infections and 6,275 deaths.


    Bangladesh has seen new cases creep above 2,000 a day in the last few days, after recording a trend of steady declines from July to October.


    In late October, in a bid to enforce public use of masks, the government instructed all public and private offices to decline services to anyone not wearing one, ahead of an expected rise in infections during the winter months.


    “We expected that we would see a second wave of coronavirus ahead of the winter in Bangladesh so we suggested that the government prepare,” Nazrul Islam, former chairman of the department of virology at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told BenarNews.


    Soaring numbers


    Another country facing a surge in cases is Malaysia, which kept daily new infections to low double-digits for months, but saw numbers soar from six on Sept. 6 to an all-time high of 1,755 on Nov. 6. Prison clusters and a by-election in late September in the state of Sabah – and people traveling there to campaign – have been linked to the surge.


    Malaysia’s king on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in the Sabah constituency of Batu Sapi in order to postpone a Dec. 5 by-election there, “as a proactive measure to curb the symptoms of the COVID-19 pandemic,” a statement by the palace in Kuala Lumpur said.


    Also Wednesday, Beijing agreed to give Malaysia “priority access to COVID-19 vaccines developed by China” under a five-year deal signed by Malaysia’s minister for science, technology and innovation Khairy Jamaluddin and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Zhigang.


    Malaysia recorded 660 new cases on Wednesday, for a cumulative caseload of 50,390, and four deaths, bringing the mortality total to 322.


    Serial Typhoons


    The Philippines is another country promised Chinese vaccines on a “priority” basis. But President Rodrigo Duterte has said he is open to acquiring a COVID-19 vaccine from the first country to develop one.


    During a Tuesday visit to the far-northern Philippines, Duterte spokesman Harry Roque said the government was prepared to get the vaccine from U.S. drug manufacturer Pfizer.


    “We have firm commitments from the United States that we will have access to COVID vaccines that may be developed in the United States,” Roque said.


    The government continues to work with Chinese and Russian companies in conducting trials of vaccines against the coronavirus.


    The Philippines has been in various stages of a lockdown since March, one of the world’s longest. Despite a high rate of infections, the government in recent weeks decided to partially open up its tourism industry and restrictions in domestic and international travel. Philippine health authorities have recorded 412,097 coronavirus cases and nearly 8,000 related deaths.


    The government’s efforts to curb the virus were disrupted by the landfall of three typhoons in rapid succession this month, during which thousands of people – particularly in the more populated northern Philippines – were forced to huddle in shelters.


    Duterte on Saturday said he had cleared national police chief Debold Sinas from any wrongdoing for attending a birthday party in May in violation of health regulations – an incident that drew criticism but did not prevent Sinas, who was Manila’s top cop at the time, from being promoted.


    Keeping Covid at Bay


    Thailand, for its part, has kept COVID-19 at bay, recorded just 3,880 cases and 60 deaths as of Wednesday.


    The Thai government was effective in combatting the pandemic through a “quick lockdown, an effective test-and-trace rollout and an already strong healthcare system,” according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank based in Washington.


    On Tuesday, the Thai cabinet approved a budget of 6 billion baht (U.S. $198.7 million) to preorder 26 million doses of COVID vaccine from U.K.-based AstraZeneca, according to a government spokesman. That amount would cover 13 million people, or 20 percent of the population, spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri told journalists.


    “The government realizes the need for Thais to have access to quality vaccine at the same time as others in the world,” he said.

    COVID-19: From Philippines to Bangladesh, Nations Hunt for Vaccines

  23. #7973
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    On Tuesday, the Thai cabinet approved a budget of 6 billion baht (U.S. $198.7 million) to preorder 26 million doses of COVID vaccine from U.K.-based AstraZeneca, according to a government spokesman.
    Obviously they don't consider it an "emergency" either.


  24. #7974
    Isle of discombobulation Joe 90's Avatar
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    This second lockdown is getting ruddy tedious..

    Coronavirus antibodies last at least six months and offer protection against a second infection, a study of healthcare workers suggests.


    Staff at Oxford University Hospitals were regularly tested both for Covid-19 infections and for antibodies revealing a past infection.


    The more antibodies people had, the lower their chances of re-infection.


    A separate study found pre-existing immunity from other coronaviruses also protected against Covid.


    Infection consultant Dr Katie Jeffery described the Oxford findings as "encouraging news" ahead of forthcoming Covid vaccines.


    They indicated that having the virus once "provides at least short-term protection" from getting it again, she said.












    The Oxford study enrolled more than 12,000 healthcare workers of which 11,000 tested negative for Covid-19 antibodies.


    Antibodies build up during a viral infection and stop the virus from getting inside the body's cells and attacking the rest of the immune system.


    Of those without any antibodies at the start of study, 89 developed symptomatic infections that were confirmed with a swab test.


    Of those that did have coronavirus-specific antibodies, none developed a symptomatic infection during the study period.


    There were three individuals who developed asymptomatic Covid-19 infections despite having positive antibody tests, compared with 76 in the group without any antibodies.


    But none of the three became unwell.


    T-cells from common cold

    The results were "consistent with Sars-CoV-2 re-exposure that did not lead to repeat symptoms", the study said.


    The antibodies being studied are those designed to bind to the "spike" of the Sars-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid-19 infections.


    This "spike" is what many of the vaccines in development target.


    The staff tested were followed for up to 30 weeks.


    Earlier in the week, a study conducted by Public Health England looked at T-cells - another element of our immune systems' response to infection.


    It found in June about a quarter of the key workers studied had high levels of T-cells which recognised the Covid virus in their blood - but only just over half of them appeared to have had Covid-19.


    The paper concluded this immunity was likely to be there "because of previous infection with coronaviruses other than SARS-CoV-2", for example the common cold virus.


    And those people with high levels of the relevant T-cells "appeared to be protected from Covid-19 in the four months after recruitment", whether they had previously been infected Covid-19 or not.


    But Dr Rupert Beale at the Francis Crick Institute pointed out that this equated to "only a very small proportion of adults (less than 10%, maybe much less than 10%)" who would be protected by pre-existing T cell immunity.


    An earlier paper suggested just looking at antibodies might underestimate how many people were protected from re-infection by T cells - another part of the immune response.

  25. #7975
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    panama hat's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe 90 View Post
    This second lockdown is getting ruddy tedious..
    There's always the alternative


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